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CHICAGO - Brain scans of teens with a history of bullying behavior suggest that they may actually get pleasure out of seeing someone else in pain, researchers said yesterday.

Although this might come as little surprise to those who have been victimized by bullies, it is not what the researchers expected, Benjamin Lahey of the University of Chicago, who worked on the study, said in an interview.

"The reason we were surprised is the prevailing view is these kids are cold and unemotional in their aggression," said Lahey, whose study appears in the journal Biological Psychology.

"This is looking like maybe they care very much," said Lahey, who worked on the study with Jean Decety, also of the University of Chicago.

The researchers compared eight males ages 16 to 18 with aggressive conduct disorder to a group of eight adolescent males with no unusual signs of aggression.

The teens with the conduct disorder had exhibited disruptive behavior such as starting a fight or using a weapon.

They showed both groups video clips of someone inflicting pain on another person and tracked brain activity with a type of imaging called test called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI.

In the aggressive teens, areas of the brain linked with feeling rewarded - the amygdala and ventral striatum - became very active when they observed pain being inflicted on others.

They always had those big Chiclets teeth that looked hilarious laying on the sidewalk.

:D

At Coretta Scott King's funeral in early 2006, Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert Kennedy, leaned over to him and whispered, "The torch is being passed to you." "A chill went up my spine," Obama told an aide. (Newsweek)

I can see the long-range value in doing the brain scans to pinpoint how the brains of violent people differ from the non-violent.

This was a better story on tv, because they showed the MRI results, and how the different parts of the brain processed the emotions, with electric impulses and such. It was complicated, but it was interesting and I can see where it could lead to identifying potentially violent people earlier in life and coming up with new strategies (not new chemicals) on how to help them find better ways to process emotions and cope with stressful situations.

I've worked with a lot of kids who have had neurological issues and violent behavior due to head injuries. A lot of this behavior starts at really young ages. This could lead to a breakthrough for psychology and neurology, that changes how we treat violent children. I hate seeing kids all drugged up on psychotropic meds.

I can see the long-range value in doing the brain scans to pinpoint how the brains of violent people differ from the non-violent.

This was a better story on tv, because they showed the MRI results, and how the different parts of the brain processed the emotions, with electric impulses and such. It was complicated, but it was interesting and I can see where it could lead to identifying potentially violent people earlier in life and coming up with new strategies (not new chemicals) on how to help them find better ways to process emotions and cope with stressful situations.

I've worked with a lot of kids who have had neurological issues and violent behavior due to head injuries. A lot of this behavior starts at really young ages. This could lead to a breakthrough for psychology and neurology, that changes how we treat violent children. I hate seeing kids all drugged up on psychotropic meds.

They will just dope them up. Punching people out and humiliating them feels good to bullies. They have no incentive to stop, only an incentive to not get caught. What's the upside for the bullies? They have to work at delayed gratification and pattern interruption techniques and they get a more boring, less powerful version of life.

They will just dope them up. Punching people out and humiliating them feels good to bullies. They have no incentive to stop, only an incentive to not get caught. What's the upside for the bullies? They have to work at delayed gratification and pattern interruption techniques and they get a more boring, less powerful version of life.

The problem with drugging them is that drugs don't work on a long-term basis, have so many side effects that patients don't want to take them, and ultimately can lead to dependency on tranquilizers.

If they found a chemical that treated the neurological condition, that would be different from giving them anti-depressants and tranqs.

I was just thinking that this would be a way to identify them when they are young (under 10) and the patterns of behavior have not been established to the same degree that it has with a teen or adult, when it is too late to teach them new coping behaviors.